Khushi Gupta
Published on: April 23, 2022 at 13:59 IST
A Bench led by Justice U.U. Lalit of Supreme Court said courts may be opting for the death penalty too soon. In some cases, trial courts sentence a person to death merely hours after conviction.
Trial Judges hardly know the people they are sending to the gallows. No effort is ever made to dig deeper into a convict’s childhood experiences, multi-generational history of physical and mental health issues, exposure to traumatic events and other familial, social and cultural factors crucial in order to undertake an individualised sentencing enquiry.
The court said a ‘mitigation expert’, a qualified professional with unhindered access to the convict’s past, ought to be at the centre of this change in outlook.
Mitigating investigators would be experts in fields as varied as social work, sociology, anthropology, criminology, psychology and other social sciences. They could interview the convicts, their families, friends and other associated with the prisoners and their past to draw a complete picture.
After all this, Trial Judges could determine the punishment for the accused.
Mr. Venugopal approved of the court’s move and said he would submit a detailed note of suggestions on the issue. The court has already appointed Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave and Advocate K. Parameshwar as Amici Curiae in the case.